Every so often, I ask my daughters - what's next for the girls? Between them, they have 'given' me 4 lovely grand-daughters, and I love making the littlies clothes (hence the name of the blog). But most of them are getting old enough now to be particular about what they want. For a long time, one would never wear dresses or skirts, and another would never wear anything else. As they've grown, they have changed a bit in this regard, but almost universally they hate string tie tops. Not one of my 4 grand-daughters will accept that type of dress with shoulder ties. They are either too fussy (bows - ugh!) or keep coming undone, or they are too tight, or they are hard to get on and off without undoing (and then they can't do them up by themselves). Or they are just the undefined "itchy". So one granddaughter asked if I could make a top something like her younger sister's bought top, shown here.
I already knew of the tutorial for this simple to make top with tie shoulders, from Purl Soho, many of whose patterns I love. You may love it too, and if so you'll find how to make it here.
From Purl Soho web site
Making the shirred top part was easy. As I've mentioned, there are several tutorials for that. I've given you links to the most useful ones I've found, at the end of the post. I just had to get a chest measurement and an approximate length for the top, measured from about the armpit (or to about where the top would fit).
For one of my 6 year old granddaughters, these measurements were 57cm chest ( about 22.5") and a finished length of 36.75 cm (14.5") from under the armhole.
To make this size, I cut a single width of fabric (110cm or about 43" wide) by 43 cm (17"), to allow for top and bottom hems. The single width was roughly double the chest measurement, which is about what you need.
As I was using the selvedges on the back seam, there was no need to neaten the edges, but I would have done this if they had been raw edges.
One tip I'd picked up was to neaten the top by putting some elastic through the top hem on the dress, rather than leaving it to frill out. So the first thing I did as I made the top hem was to make sure it was the right width for the elastic to be threaded through later. So I placed the elastic close to the top edge as I folded the hem under. For the top hem I folded in about 1/4" or 0.6 cm, then a further 1.6cm (5/8").
Having made the top hem (but not threaded the elastic through) I used 5 lines of shirring elastic, each about 1.2cm apart (1/2"). But you can use fewer, or more, and make them closer together or further apart, as you wish. I knotted the ends very firmly to stop them slipping through. Many of the tutorials suggest doing the usual forwards and backwards stitches at each end of each line, but my machine didn't care for this. One thing you probably can't do (which I had tried) is to continue straight from one line of shirring onto the next, without tying off the thread and starting again. I found this tightened the whole thing so it would barely stretch at all.
Here, I've just threaded a piece of elastic through the top hem, just very slightly shorter than the chest measurement, and anchored it to one end. You can see the pin on the left - I am yet to anchor the left hand end of the elastic. I used 1 cm elastic, about 3/8", but you could use 1/4" elastic too.
I then sewed up the back seam, sewing very firmly over the ends of the shirring elastic.
To make the elasticated straps, I cut two pieces of fabric 40cm x 10cm (c 16" x 4"). I plan for the finished length of the straps to be c 26cm (10 1/4"). You could make them much more gathered, but I wasn't looking for a very frilly look - just straps with a bit of give. Turned a small hem at each end of the straps, thenI made these into tubes by sewing them right sides together and turning through. I also made a channel about 1.2cm or 1/2" from the seam for the elastic. I threaded the elastic through, anchoring it to both ends of the straps.
Laying the bodice flat, the straps were attached to the inside front about 1/3 of the way in from the sides, just below the top elastic. I stretched the top of the bodice a little as I sewed, so it could still 'give' where the straps were attached. The plan was to do a try on before attaching the back of the straps. That way, I would also have been able to check the length of the whole top before hemming, as well.
However, lockdown intervened, and so I had to give telephone instructions to my daughter as to how and where to measure, in order to finish the top without my grand-daughter being present with me. So I sewed the back of the straps and the bottom hem based on these measurements. I think if I had been able to try it on, the straps might have ended up half an inch shorter, but they are fine. She's growing fast. Here's the finished top after sewing the bottom hem.
Well, my grand-daughter was happy.
And it seems to work for her active lifestyle, too.
(Hope you like the Grandma-made superhero shorts, too!)
List of tutorials on shirring and making a shirred top.
These tutorials for shirring below are very useful. I'd made shirred dresses in the past for my daughters (with tie straps, or with the shirring just forming a gathered waist). It took me a while to re-master it, practising on spare bits of fabric, but it was worth doing. I found hand-winding the bobbin worked best. On one machine, I'd had to loosen the bobbin tension, which I don't really recommend. (It's hard then to get it back to where it was!)
Note that all of these do have tie straps, which I didn't want - hence my blog.
FOOTNOTE: Since I wrote this blog, I've also found this tutorial from Spoonflower, for a shirred top avoiding tie straps, which I have to say is better than mine! However, there are still aspects of mine that I prefer, like the elastic in the top hem, and the fact that it is elasticated straps rather than wider ruffles, which one grand-daughter at least would still reject. But if you want a really clear tutorial, look at this link!
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